Policy Priorities

EDUCATING CONGRESS

We will ensure that Congress and the Administration have the basic facts
of scientific advances in HIV treatment and prevention to ensure the
U.S. enacts and implements sound public policies to reverse the course
of the HIV epidemic.

We will ensure strong grassroots involvement in education and advocacy
focused on Congress and the Administration through AIDSWatch and
state and regional advocacy.

BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS

We will work to ensure that the annual federal budget and appropriations
process results in funding levels that allow the U.S. to take advantage
of scientific advances to end the HIV epidemic and that are responsive
to the goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS), health care
reform, and to the needs of vulnerable populations.

We will advocate strong funding for domestic HIV/AIDS prevention,
treatment and research, nutrition programs, housing programs, and
workforce education and development. We also will advocate an end to
the damaging sequester and replacement with a balanced approach to
deficit reduction that includes revenue growth.

We will advocate adequate funding for the Corporation for National and
Community Service, which includes the Social Innovation Fund and
AmeriCorps.

We will oppose severe funding cuts to other federal domestic programs that serve low-income people and vulnerable populations.

We will support maintaining strong U.S. leadership on funding that addresses global HIV/AIDS.

INTEGRATING HIV PREVENTION, CARE AND TREATMENT INTO HEALTH CARE

We will advocate policies that reposition HIV/AIDS prevention and care
in the context of prevention and management of other chronic diseases
and co-morbidities of HIV.

We will advocate full implementation of the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act (ACA) at the national and state levels so that all
people with living with HIV/AIDS have access to and are retained in HIV
treatment and care.

We will advocate for all states to accept the ACA’s Medicaid Expansion
provision. We will advocate for all states and the federal government
to ensure that all health insurance marketplaces offer health insurance
plans that offer benefits and coverage that meet the medical needs of
people living with HIV/AIDS and are in compliance with the ACA.

We will advocate building on ACA implementation to develop new health care delivery systems that include payer reform.

We will advocate for public policies and programs to implement a
dramatic scaling up of HIV testing and linkage to care, including
availability of routine HIV testing in clinical, institutional, drug
treatment, and community settings.

We will advocate for public policies and programs to expand and train
the health care and social service workforces, especially primary health
care professionals and social workers.

We will advocate policies that increase adequate and stable housing for people living with or at risk for HIV.

We will advocate policies that expand food and nutrition programs and
that reflect the inclusion of food and nutrition in the continuum of
services for people with HIV.

We will advocate policies and programs that focus on Hepatitis C and that reflect the co-morbidity with HIV.

We will advocate passage of comprehensive immigration reform that
includes provisions that address the health needs of immigrants and
equal treatment for the immigrant partners of U.S. citizens.

We will continue to support robust implementation of the National
HIV/AIDS Strategy with a strong focus on coordination among federal
agencies, expansion of the twelve cities initiative, and improved
coordination in low-prevalence areas.

STRENGTHEN THE RYAN WHITE PROGRAM

AU supports and will advocate a timely reauthorization of the Ryan White Program.

We will advocate strengthening the Ryan White Program to ensure the
continuance and uptake of HIV treatment and care services as full
implementation of health care reform proceeds under the Affordable Care
Act.

We will work to ensure that the Ryan White Program continues as a safety
net for people living with HIV who remain uninsured or underinsured.

We will provide core leadership to achieve a community consensus on
providing a strong vision for the future role of the Ryan White Program
in linking people living with HIV/AIDS to affordable care and treatment,
providing care and treatment, helping to maintain them in care and
treatment and helping them to adhere to treatment that results in
increasing viral suppression, lowering the rates of infections in
communities, and ensuring that people living with HIV lead longer,
healthier lives.

EVIDENCE-BASED PREVENTION

We will promote state and federal policies to reduce new HIV infections
through a combination of evidence-based behavioral, biomedical, and
structural strategies.

We will advocate for ending the ban on the use of federal funds for syringe exchange programs.

We will advocate for increased support for implementing effective
biomedical prevention interventions that use anti-retroviral strategies
[Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), vaginal and rectal microbicides, and
treatment as prevention] in combination with primary prevention
activities.

We will advocate for increased support of HIV prevention research to
expand the range of effective biomedical, behavioral, and structural HIV
prevention interventions among populations most affected by HIV and
most at risk of infection.

We will advocate state and federal policies that advance comprehensive
sex education and that promote a public health perspective on sexual
health.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSIVENESS

We will advocate policies that promote inclusion of people with HIV and
that reflect and respect the racial and ethnic, cultural, and linguistic
diversity of towards people with HIV.

We will oppose policies and laws that serve to stigmatize or
discriminate against people with HIV. We will focus especially on
federal level efforts in support of repealing and opposing laws that
reinforce disease-focused stigma, including criminalizing HIV. We will
oppose the use of other criminal laws in ways that stigmatize and
discriminate against people living with or believed to be living with
chronic diseases, including HIV.

We will support reauthorization of the Older Americans Act that includes
provisions that include older Americans living with HIV.